


this is the impression i get from looking in the television set

by Wolvesandwerewolves



Category: Justice League - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28687608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolvesandwerewolves/pseuds/Wolvesandwerewolves
Summary: The Justice Lords isn’t an alternate universe—but the future where Bart comes from. (No evil Blue Beetle/not season two compliant almost at all)Or: When he thought of the future, Wally always imagined flying cars, advances in science and medicine, maybe a little less crime and a couple different faces to the Justice League he’s semi-retired from.He never imagined this.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Wally West, Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	this is the impression i get from looking in the television set

**Author's Note:**

> I have no impulse control, as usual, so im posting this at 12:30 instead of going to bed like a responsible adult 
> 
> idk if this is something that ill even finish, but it has been bugging me for years, and i needed a break from the umbrella academy fandom (mostly bc of burnout lol) so uh,,,,here goes
> 
> title taken from America by Allen Ginsberg

Bart is quieter than Wally has ever seen him before.

It’s cool out. The sky is grey overcast, darker in the distance ahead of them. The sidewalk they walk along is dark, still wet from a rain that must have dissipated before they arrived here. The shoes that Bart had stolen for him are slightly too big on his feet. They shift uncomfortably as he walks, and squeak on the ground with every step. In the quiet between them, it’s loud. Annoying. He wants to peel the sneakers off, even if he has to walk barefoot in the chill.

He doesn’t dare move to. As much as he wants to, he doesn’t.

Wally wishes he were still wearing the suit. But not five minutes after they landed here, Bart had pushed them into an alley, and told them to wait there and stay out of sight. His tone, usually high and happy even in a fight, left no room for arguing. He’d run off alone, left him and Blue Beetle to sit there awkwardly waiting for him for an entire ten minutes.

He came back with snow in his hair, even though there wasn’t any in the air, and the clothes he’d handed them were stiff and cold. Then he’d stripped his own suit off, without ceremony, despite the cold.

Wally and Jaime had done the same. Begrudgingly, sure, but at that point the flush across his little cousin’s face when he’d peeled the mask off, and the shake of hands when he’d shoved their outfits into an old backpack had him worried enough he didn’t question it.

He wants to, now. Every time he opens his mouth, Bart shushes him. He isn’t mean about it, or harsh, but somehow Wally wishes that he would be. He’s just...quiet.

It’s unnerving. He steals a glance over at Jaime, eyebrows raised, but the kid just shrugs back. He’s walking on the other side of Bart, hand in hand with him, like nothing’s wrong. He’s quiet, too, doesn’t even talk to the Beetle like he usually does.

Wally sighs. But he keeps silent, and he keeps walking.

He knows he won’t get answers from Bart—not yet, anyways, and he has no idea where they’re going or how long it will take—so instead, he tries to observe. He’s not a detective, not like Dick or the Bat, but he’s been a hero since he was fifteen years old. And he’s a scientist. So he pays attention.

Aside from being in the future, and in an entirely different season than the one they left, nothing seems too out of the ordinary. Cars drive past them on the street, going slow with the slick streets. The few pedestrians they pass on the sidewalk all smile at them as they walk by. When Wally looks inside the windows of the buildings, the people inside look fine; working, typing at holographic computers with their heads down, or eating lunch with their friends and talking. Like normal. Like home, thirty-five or forty years in the past.

_Except_.

Except its quiet.

Bart isn’t the only calm, silent one here. The entire city seems to be following along, like some unspoken rule. There is no honking, no sirens in the distance. None of the cars that drive by are blaring loud music, or driving erratically. Not even above the speed limit, from what he can tell. And the more he looks, the more Wally notices. Everything is...perfect. Too perfect. There’s no graffiti. There’s no broken streetlights or sidewalks. No missing dog posters taped on light poles. No anything, no—

There’s no homeless people.

It’s a startling realization. Suddenly, Wally feels too warm and uncomfortable. His hands, hidden in his pockets and stiff, start to sweat at the palm. Carefully, he shrugs his hands out, wipes them on the jeans he’s wearing. Bart glances at the movement before quickly looking ahead again.

_Maybe it’s a good thing,_ Wally tries to tell himself. Maybe they’ve finally housed people off the streets, started going after the roots of homelessness and poverty instead of ignoring or abusing what brought people to that point. Maybe debt, destitution just doesn’t exist in the future anymore.

He’s not convinced. Something is wrong here.

But he still doesn’t know what’s going on. His little cousin’s nerves are spreading, contagious like a virus. The more he walks, the more he notices— _police presence on four out of the ten blocks they’ve walked so far, no crime to speak of, no reason for them—_ the more anxious he feels.

For some reason, he thinks of the tv show he and Dick had binge watched just last week. Last week for him, anyways. He doesn’t remember the name, but he remembers the house, the neighborhood the characters lived in. It was a good area, quiet, idyllic. A white picket fence and a rose garden. Two young children, loving parents, a dog. Picture perfect.

Except that behind the shadows, the family belonged to the mob. The violence in their lives was a well hidden infection; it festered and fevered until—well, Wally’s not sure.   
  
They never actually made it to the end of the show. 

_This isn’t a tv show,_ Wally reminds himself. _It’s the future, and it’s an entire city. Nothing like that is happening here. You’re just reading into things.  
_

Probably. He’s reading into things, _probably._

Except.

They pass by another police cruiser. Wally glances in the nearly fogged over windows, makes accidental eye contact with the man sitting inside, face stone and unemotional. He turns his head as they walk past, and the cop continues to follow their strides.   
  
Wally looks away. He feels like he’s still being watched. An uncomfortable shock travels down his spine, hot and sudden. He twitches.

Again, he wants to open his mouth, ask Bart a dozen different questions he’s desperate to know the answers to.

_What’s going on? What happened? Where are we going?_

_You grew up here? Was it_ safe?

_Did you really get stuck in the past as an accident, or were you running away?_

But he doesn’t say anything. His mouth is dry. He cracks his knuckles, a nervous habit, and tries to convince himself that he’s imagining Bart stiffening at the sound.

They keep walking. It’s quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> was the tv show the sopranos or was it a young justice universe version of it called .... the altos 
> 
> (i have never watched the sopranos) 
> 
> Ok xoxo goodnight ~maybe~ ill upload another chapter maybe i ~won’t~
> 
> Edit: LMAOOOOO uploaded this at like 1 am last night, just noticed I accidentally called Blue Beetle by his and Bart’s ship name...BluePulse lmfao


End file.
